How are your dogs with strangers?

 In general, Sasha LOVES people. She used to know not to pester people without an invitation, but somewhere that got lost and I'm working on getting it back. Babies are her all time favorite.

The exceptions are older people who walk hunched over, and  people who move in quickly and lean over her to pet her head. She believes all people speak dog, and therefore *must* be threatening her when they do this. If they stop, she's willing to be pals. If not, she'll move away.

GordonsGirl

This new stage Sniper is going through got me wondering, how are all your dogs with people they don't know? Friendly, shy, aloof, aggressive?

Does the stranger have food in their hands?  If so, he's very outgoing.  If no food, he will completely ignore the person.  If he doesn't ignore the person, that means that he doesn't trust them and I should be on alert. 

If the strangers are human-only and we're not on their home turf they're both pretty aloof. Marlowe likes to get some scritches if he can make that work without being too pushy, but Conrad prefers to hang back. He's a bit shy and really does not like the way most people approach dogs (over the head, looming). Normally if I'm having a conversation with someone on the street,he just sits down about a food behind me and waits. He does get squirrely over certain situations though. People running past us close, kids running or jumping around close to us (he's got about a 3 foot personal boundary space around him that if it gets invaded by someone acting very startlingly, he will lunge or jump). Marlowe is bomb-proof. An axe-murder could jump out of the shadows and grab both his ears and pull and he'd just kind of stand there. He's not a very good watch-dog. When out with only Marlowe I don't have any illusions about having any kind of protection (beyond just the visual deterrent of having a largish black dog walking with me). With Conrad, I feel very safe. Don't mess with him and definitely do not mess with me when he's with me.

Conrad is very social with other dogs and things can get a little hairy leash-tangling wise if there are other dogs part of the equation. Marlowe doesn't care too much about meeting other dogs, so he just kind of hangs back and maybe gets a little sniff-sniff here or a sniff-sniff there. 

At home when people come over they don't know, I do an introduction and Conrad takes his cues about their trustworthiness from me. He'll either follow them around and watch them or just go lay on his chair and go back to his nap. Marlowe, again, only cares about visitors in as much as there might be food involved and otherwise, he can't really be bothered to care.  He'd help the burglers move the TV out if they gave him a cookie.

All my guys are good with strangers, they love everyone.  Dasher will pretty much run up to anyone and be all squiggly and wants rubs.    However he does lose interest pretty quickly.  I have only seen him be wary of a handful of strangers,  these are people who were strangers to me as well.  Usually the person smoked (I don't smoke) so my guess is that he smelled smoke on them..not sure though...it did make me look hard at that person though

Zip is also pretty friendly.  He tends to get mouthy with people, something we are working on fixing.  But again he loses interest pretty quick too.  Zip has more prey drive than Dasher so he is always looking for the next thing to chase.

Lille loves everyone and acts like she has never been petted in her entire life when she meets new people.  She will squeal, moan and  squeak  when she meets anyone.  She will not leave the person alone, literally...its embarrassing.

Wesley does not like strangers - at all.  We have worked on this endlessly and are finally in a place where if someone totally ignores him, he will ignore them too (I think this is as good as it is going to get for us - bet we keep working!).  

On walks or in the dog park, I do not allow anyone to interact with him (there are a few exceptions at the park of people he knows very well).  If I see him paying any attention to a person who he doesn't know very well, I intervene immediately and call him away - it is never a good sign for him to be paying attention to a stranger.

In our house, I monitor the door - he is leashed when a guest arrives and he is not let off until he is totally disinterested in the guest.  At no point are most guests to do anything but ignore him.  A few guests, who I trust and who are dog savvy, are permitted, after spending a long time in the house to interact with Wesley, but then, there are specific rules about NILIF and when, how long, how to give any attention etc.

The biggest problem is that he gives mixed signals.  If someone kneels down and faces away from him, he will wag and approach, but 2 seconds later his approach will change and he will growl/lunge/snap...  Same if they give him a treat, he will wag and take it, and then as soon as it is gone, he will get nasty.  Several times trainers, vets etc. have been confused by his seemingly friendly approach which so quickly turns unfriendly.  It is very unclear, even to those of us that know him well, whether he is uncomfortable or simply trying to be pushy about his space.

I must say that my dearest wish is to someday have a friendly dog.  We will probably not get to friendly with Wesley, but I am encouraged that we have moved from cujo-type aggression being the norm to that being the exception... 

On walks or in the dog park, I do not allow anyone to interact with him (there are a few exceptions at the park of people he knows very well).  If I see him paying any attention to a person who he doesn't know very well, I intervene immediately and call him away - it is never a good sign for him to be paying attention to a stranger.

I'm not trying to start anything with this comment and please don't take it as an attack, but why do you take him to the dog park? Aren't you concerned that he will snap at someone? That could get you in to trouble - especially if its a kid. 

To be honest - I have never seen a child in our park when we go (early weekday mornings when we most often get the same few die hard park users each day).  If there were to be a kid in the park, we would certainly leave because I would not trust a child to follow my instructions, and it would certainly be very unfair to take any risk with someone else's child. 

Other than kids, I trust most adults to follow simple instructions - if someone I don't know comes into the park I tell them "he is not good with strangers, please ignore him."  Most people at our park are very receptive and understand that he has issues that we are working through.  Certainly, I am taking some risk, but I feel that it is important for his progression to keep being around people, and this is one of the most controlled, dog friendly environments that I have at my disposal.  I am very careful to go only at the time of day when there are very very few new people/dogs, if any, on any given day and if there are ever too many, or I feel like a person, or Wes is not listening to me, we leave.  If we stop socializing it will only get worse, so, as long as I feel like I am in control over the situation, it is a risk I am willing to take...

i second jewliee here. why even go to the dog park? 

Gypsy likes almost everyone out on the streets and at the businesses we got into. The few people she does NOT like, I avoid.  I figure there's a darned good reason for her to dislike these people.

At home, she guards our house zealously. Once she sees someone is OK (as per me) she turns into a butt-wagging fool.  She races around the house looking for a toy and whines anxiously while begging to be petted. At night, she is Cujo if someone walks by one the sidewalk.

When we walk at night, she will growl softly at people when we walk by them.  She doesn't lunge or become overly aggressive, she just lets them know, "This is MY Mom.  Do NOT bother her!".

californiaglock

i second jewliee here. why even go to the dog park? 

I go to one particular park where I feel comfortable and in control because I don't feel that saying - "this isn't easy or perfect, so why try..."  To me, not continuing to socialize Wesley with other dogs and not continuing to put him around people (albeit only in situations that I feel that I can control) is not doing the best I can for him - isolating him and ignoring the problem is not going to help it get better! 

What if, because he isn't thrilled with having strangers in the house I simply avoided ever having guests over because it was not worth the risk?  I know that going to a public place is different, but I also think it is important because each time we have a successful venture where Wesley gets to have a ton of fun around people who are not bothering him, reinforces the fact that there is nothing wrong with having people around, and further, that fun things (like playing with his friends) happen when there are people around.  I minimize the risk by going only to one park that I know and only going during the least populated times when I can manage the situation. 

All I can really say is that continuing to put him in situations like this, along with working closely with a number of qualified professionals has helped us lead Wes from an unpredictable terror that we were not sure we could live with to a dog with certain manageable triggers that continues to show imporvement all the time...  Listen, I don't know if everything we do for him is "right" in an absolute sense; but, I know that if we didn't push the comfort zone, I would have a dog that couldn't leave the house and a house where no one but immediate family could ever be - I don't think I could live like that...

Riley is friendly with strangers but he jumps on them which really bothers me.  I mean, he's small so he can't cause too much damage, but sometimes his nails are really long and they just kind of hurt.  Whenever I try to break him of this habit, people always let him jump up on them anways.

 Back on topic, Riley is almost always friendly with human strangers, but not always with canine strangers.

Kirby is friendly but reserved around strangers.  When it comes to just briefly meeting people while walking, or taking him places in public his interest varies.  If the person is doing something interesting or there isn't anything better to do he'll often stare at them as we pass, maybe get a little pully on the leash, but we are working on that still.  As far as meeting and greeting, he has no problem going over and giving a little hello sniff.  Usually though that is were his interest in a person wanes.  He doesn't care to interact with someone who is just another random stranger.  If they are dog savvy enough to know how to calmly reach down, he'll usually oblige and let them give him a little pat.  If the person is moving faster than he likes or he doesn't care for them, he will politely duck out of reach and rely on me to take it from there.

 When it comes to having people over at the house he looks to me for how to react.  He always seems to warm up to people he can tell our friends and family, while just curiously watching those that are maintenance workers/ delivery people and other such random strangers.

 
Now if someone were to try to come into our home unannounced, they would be met with a snarling 9 pound Cujo.  He wouldn't outright bite them, but he would give off a set of snarls and howls that will make your hair stand on end.
 

 Sioux and Maska are therapy dogs so they are fine with strangers.  Sioux is reserved and dignified, and Maska thinks humans were created to pat him and rub his back.

Fergie loves everybody.

Sequoyah picks and chooses, and she will keep intruders out of the house.   Once she is properly introduced to someone and likes them, she remembers forever and is always glad to see them, complete with Aussie butt wags.

Penny loves nearly all strangers. If I've invited them into our house, she assumes they're good and sets about winning them over with cuteness in the hopes it will lead to her being fed or getting a belly rub. The only person she's ever failed to win over was my honours supervisor, who hates dogs. She tried very hard, but he didn't want to make friends. Apparently he's strictly a cat person. Out and about, she tends to either ignore people or decide she wants to go with them instead of me, which is very embarrassing. Fortunately, she can be persuaded to stay with me instead. Occasionally, she doesn't like the look of someone and barks at them with her hackles up. That's pretty rare, though.

My mother's dogs, Jill and Pyry, are quite different. Jill loves people, but doesn't trust strangers. She's a great watchdog and comes roaring around the corner of the house with her hackles up whenever she hears someone that isn't part of the family arrive. It takes a while to convince her someone new is okay. Mum is confident no one would ever catch her when she gets out of the yard because she won't let strangers close enough to her. She hates it when they try to put their hand over her head on her collar. Pyry is friendly, but in a reserved way. He waits until all the greetings are done before trotting out and demanding attention. Once he's met someone, he proceeds to ignore them and do his own thing. He adores kids, though. Which is odd, because he's never had much to do with them. He just goes all happy when he sees a kid and tries to lick their faces.